Cardinals Reward Calais Campbell With Five-Year Extension

NFL via Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- The Arizona Cardinals recognize that they need all the defensive help they can get, and so the team the keeping one of their best defensive players in Arizona for the foreseeable future.

The team announced they have signed defensive end Calais Campbell to a five-year contract extension worth $55 million, with $31 million guaranteed.

In his fourth year in the NFL and with the Cardinals, Campbell registered 72 total tackles with eight sacks, and two forced fumbles. Each year in the NFL, he's taken his game to another level, and the Cardinals are hoping that trend continues.

"I still have a long way to go," Campbell said. "I'm 25, still a young guy, taking it one day at a time."

"I like having pressure on me," he also said. "It makes me work even harder."

The Cardinals defense struggled mightily during the first half of the 2011 season, and the team started 1-6. After that though, the defense drastically improved after their poor start, and the team went 7-2 the rest of the way.